Various communications protocols have been promulgated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (“IETF”) to standardize communications on the Internet. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IETF RFC 2460, December 1998, hereafter “IPv6”) refers to the most recent protocol, which addresses some of the shortcomings in older versions (e.g., Internet Protocol Version 4, IETF RFC 791, September 1981, hereafter “IPv4”), such as the limited availability of Internet addresses. Due to this limitation on addresses, IPv4-compliant networks have resorted to utilizing devices such as gateways to minimize the number of addresses necessary. Gateways are typically devices that provide high-speed Internet access to private networks, routing incoming data to and from nodes (e.g., personal computers and/or other networked devices such as networked media adapters for televisions and stereos, etc.) within private networks (e.g., home networks, small office home office (“SOHO”) networks, etc.) to external networks (e.g., a wide area network (“WAN”) such as the Internet). Gateways may be assigned a public address, and if configured to use a Network Address Translator (“NAT”), this single unique public Internet address may represent multiple nodes on the private network. Public addresses are typically automatically registered with one or more Domain Name Service (“DNS”) servers. DNS servers enable nodes to register their Internet addresses along with a hostname. Thereafter, other nodes may reach the registered node via its address and/or its hostname.
IPv6-compliant networks, however, utilize 128-bit addresses (instead of 32-bit addresses used in IPv4-compliant networks), resulting in virtually an unlimited number of addresses. As such, every node on both public and private networks may be assigned a globally routable Internet address. IPv6 addresses are significantly more difficult to remember and/or use than IPv4 addresses due to the length and complexity of the addresses. The use of hostnames is therefore especially critical in IPv6 networks. Currently, however, there is no automatic registration mechanism by which IPv6 addresses on a private network may be registered with DNS servers on external networks. As such, IPv6 nodes within private networks may not be easily reached via hostnames from nodes on the external networks.